COMPUTER-ASSISTED TRAVEL COUNSELING

Reliable and efficient access to relevant travel alternatives is a key ingredient for successful travel counseling. Computers can now assist travel counselors to provide better service to potential tourists. Lack of experience of a counselor may be offset by following the suggestions prompted on a computer monitor during the sales talk. Computer assistance in travel counseling may take two main forms: expert systems and retrieval approaches. This paper examines prototypes of these two approaches with a view to describing their main features as well as their respective strengths and weaknesses. The problems of implementation are discussed and recommendations for further action are proposed. © 1990.